Nov 3, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From FoxNews Seventh Night of Riots in France.France's government faced mounting pressure Thursday as suburban unrest spread, with youths setting fire to a car dealership and public buses in battles with riot police, who reportedly came under gunfire.
Youths rampaged for a seventh straight night, undeterred by the presence of armed riot police. Acts ranging from clashing with police to torching vehicles were reported in at least 10 Paris (search)-region towns.
The riots have highlighted the division between France's big cities and their poor suburbs and frustrations simmering in housing projects to the north and northeast of Paris, heavily populated by North African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children who struggle with high unemployment, crime and poverty.
From Jihad Watch: French Muslims riot for seventh night running.The difference between the Reuters headline and mine epitomizes the difficulty the French have in facing the real dimensions of this problem. For it is ultimately not a problem of disaffected youth who just need jobs and money, but of youth who consider the French government a foreign power, and one that ultimately must be replaced by a very different kind of government. Bat Ye'or in Eurabia has demonstrated that the French for over 30 years now have allowed for massive immigration without making any move to assimilate the immigrants. Up until the hijab ban their Islamic identity was not only unchallenged but encouraged -- partly out of ignorance of how the Sharia impulse conflicts with the Western societal model of pluralism. Now they are reaping the fruit.
See No Pasaran for more.
UPDATE I -- Nov. 4: From FoxNews Paris Riots Spread to 20 Suburbs.A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state. ...
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois — heart of the rioting — men filled the Bilal mosque for evening prayers, but streets were subdued with shops shutting early.
UPDATE II: From FoxNews French Riots Spread Beyond Paris.The chaotic riots that have gripped the suburban slums north of Paris for more than a week spread to more suburbs and other towns across France Thursday night.
North of Paris, Muslim youths from northern and sub-Saharan Africa torched over 400 cars and several large stores. Jean-Francois Cordet, a regional official, said a group of 30 to 40 teenagers harassed police near a synagogue and that a school classroom had been partially burned.
UPDATE III -- Nov. 5: From FoxNews Paris Rioters Burn Ambulance and Stone Medics.Widespread riots across impoverished areas of France took a malevolent turn in a ninth night of violence, as youths torched an ambulance and stoned medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person. Authorities arrested more than 200 people, an unprecedented sweep since the beginning of the unrest.
Other bands of predominantly Muslim youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and more than 750 cars overnight as the violence that spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France. ...
An attack this week on a woman bus passenger highlighted the savage nature of some of the violence. The woman, in her 50s and on crutches, was doused with an inflammable liquid and set afire after passengers were forced to leave the bus, blocked by burning objects on the road, judicial officials said.
Late Friday in Meaux, east of Paris, youths prevented firefighters from evacuating a sick person from an apartment in a housing project, pelting them with stones and torching the awaiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry officer said. The officer, not authorized to speak publicly, asked not to be named.
Oct 31, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--Nobody seems to think that the oil companies have a moral right to keep their huge third-quarter profits--nobody, that is, except Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Congressional Democrats want to punch the oil industry with a windfall-profit tax; others want these profits "rebated" to consumers. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said oil companies must invest their profits in building refineries to boost production so that they can lower prices. Environmentalists want Congress to force the oil companies to invest in alternative-energy sources. Though these people disagree on how to spend the oil companies' profits, they agree the companies should feel morally guilty for earning their vast profits and must "give them back to the community."
In contrast, Dr. Brook, a former professor of finance, argues that "these profits are well earned, a return on years of investing--despite opposition by environmentalists and government regulators--in new oil fields and in upkeep of refineries. These profits are the property of the oil companies--the property of their investors. These shareholders have the moral right to do with their money as they please--pay it out as a dividend, invest in new refining capacity (assuming government will allow them to do so), pay large salaries to executives, use it to buy new businesses, etc. It is their money, not ours."
The government should not bail out companies when they are struggling (as U.S. refiners had been for a number of years); and it certainly should not penalize them when they are successful. The proper governmental policy, economically and morally, is: Hands off.Oct 27, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
IRVINE, CA--As fears of an avian flu pandemic grow, demands that governments trample on the property rights of drug companies also grow. Many people want governments to violate the patent rights of Roche AG, licensed manufacturer of Tamiflu, so that other organizations can manufacture the drug.
"These demands are immoral," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "Instead of vilifying Roche we should be praising it for having the foresight to license and manufacture Tamiflu in the first place, the drug which appears to be the most effective treatment for the current strand of avian flu. Governments that wish to stockpile Tamiflu should enter into contracts to purchase it. The surge in demand will lead Roche to manufacture as much of the drug as it profitably can and to license its patent to other manufacturers for a fee. The new demand will be swiftly met. That Roche will profit is only just.
"We must remember that without Roche and Gilead (the inventor of the drug), Tamiflu would not exist. And without unyielding recognition of a creator's patent rights, research into the next anti-flu drug will be stifled. Government intervention has already made many avenues of drug research unprofitable--to the detriment of the health of each of us. The threat of an influenza pandemic is ongoing. We must not let governments destroy this vital area of research too."Oct 27, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From AFP today: Iran condemned over anti-Israel remark, regime unrepentant.Iran was hit by a barrage of Western condemnation after its hardline president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", but the clerical regime struck back with yet more verbal attacks against the Jewish state.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech, delivered Wednesday at a conference entitled "The World without Zionism", came just hours before a suicide bombing in Israel and provoked fresh fears that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons programme.
The European Union said Thursday that the comments -- the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has openly called for Israel's annihilation -- were "despicable and unacceptable" and "inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community". ...
And Israel, which alleges Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, said the Islamic republic should be expelled from the United Nations.
But Iran's regime was unrepentant, confirming its dramatic shift to the right that came with Ahmadinejad's shock election win in June.
The spokesman of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Seyed Massoud Jazihiri, backed up Ahmadinejad by describing Israel as a "cancerous tumour".
He said the West "was right to be afraid, because two decades ago when the Imam (Khomeini) called for Israel to be wiped off the map they thought it was a slogan, but as time passes we are seeing signs of unity in the Islamic world."
"We have no doubts that at the end of the road, the victory of Muslims and the defeat of Israel is inevitable," Jazihiri told the Fars news agency.
Iran's foreign ministry also ordered its diplomats to lodge official protests over Europe's attitude toward "Zionist crimes". [Emphasis added]
UPDATE I: From Investor's Business Daily: Hate, Iranian Style.There's nothing Israel can do to please such Islamic radicals. Ahmadinejad called Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip only a "new instigation, which aimed at Israel's recognition by the Islamic countries." No concessions on the part of Israel hold meaning to the Iranian regime; it wants nothing less than the state's eradication, and by extension the Jews themselves.
More significant than words is what Iran has been up to. Iran's determination and ability to act against the U.S. should not be underestimated.
The November issue of the German monthly Cicero will report that, according to Western intelligence sources, the Iranian Republican Guards are providing haven in and near Tehran to 25 members of al-Qaida — from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Europe. ...
What's more, the deadlier, more sophisticated bombs now being used by insurgents to kill American troops in Iraq make use of TNT from Iran seven times stronger than the TNT available in Iraq, according to a Washington Post interview of a former Iraqi army officer who is now a member of al-Qaida.
And lest there be any doubt about the fascistic tendencies of his regime, Ahmadinejad recently led a committee of Islamic clerics in banning Western films from being shown or sold in Iran. [Emphasis added]
UPDATE II -- Oct. 28: From FoxNews: Iranians Rally in Support of President's Anti-Israel Stance.Tens of thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country on Friday, repeating calls by their ultraconservative president for the Jewish state's destruction. ...
Iranians staged multiple demonstrations in the capital, Tehran (search), and other cities such as Mashad in Iran's east, holding banners carrying anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans. "Death to Israel, death to America," read many of the placards.
The demonstrations are part of the annual al-Quds — Jerusalem — Day protests, which were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.
The state-organized rallies are expected to grow ahead of midday mosque sermons across Iran. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have attended previous protests.
Oct 25, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
Why 'big business' likes the minimum wage -- their 'small business' competitors cannot afford to pay it.
From the Motley Fool:
Also, in a bit of irony, Wal-Mart took a stance on public policy by advocating an increase in the minimum wage. The company has often drawn fire for its labor practices and employee pay. However, it maintains that it pays its employees at rates above the minimum wage, while trends indicate that its customers can't afford to purchase basic necessities throughout the month. Given its average wage of approximately $10 an hour, Wal-Mart's call to increase the minimum wage above $5.15 would actually place an additional burden on many of its smaller, low-wage competitors.
Oct 20, 2005 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
From FoxNews: Saddam Pleads Not Guilty.At the start, the 68-year-old ousted Iraqi leader — looking thin in a dark gray suit and open-collared shirt — stood and asked the presiding judge: "Who are you? I want to know who you are."
"I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq," he said, brushing off the judge's attempts to interrupt him.
"Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false."
From The New York Times: Iraqis Watch the Trial on TV, With Emotions Running High.Viewpoints varied widely, some calling it a tawdry display of victor's justice, others a long-awaited, if somewhat unsatisfactory, accounting for sins too numerous to list.
The opinions generally divided along ethnic and sectarian lines, with many Sunni Arabs expressing some sympathy for Mr. Hussein, one of their own, and long-persecuted Shiites and Kurds barely containing their hatred. Everyone, though, seemed to take notice of Mr. Hussein's fierce disposition and his unwillingness to bend to his captors.
